Fantastic Voyage.

Review #881: Fantastic Voyage.

Cast:
Stephen Boyd (Charles Grant), Raquel Welch (Cora Peterson), Edmond O'Brien (General Carter), Donald Pleasence (Dr. Michaels), Arthur O'Connell (Colonel Donald Reid), William Redfield (Captain Bill Owens), Arthur Kennedy (Dr. Peter Duval), and Jean Del Val (Dr. Jan Benes) Directed by Richard Fleischer (#453 - Soylent Green, #460 - Doctor Dolittle, #624 - Conan the Destroyer, #829 - Red Sonja, and #870 - The Narrow Margin)

Review:
Fantastic Voyage is an entertaining movie that manages to have enough spectacle moments and a fine amount of atmosphere to overcome some structural faults. The film moves at a relatively adequate pace, trying to set up its plot with some form of legitimacy and pace, not taking too long to get to the body effects. Boyd is fairly decent as this every-man kind of role, not being too strong or dull in any one direction. Welch is interesting, though she isn't given too much screen time. Pleasence is engaging as always, giving off the right sense of clout. The effects are the showcase for the movie, and they are quite interesting for the time (1966) it was made, especially when you first see the body, giving off a sense of wonder. There are some fairly good moments, such as when they have to go through the ear drum, with silence required throughout the operating room in normal size. It takes its time while building up tension, with a fairly good culminating noise and ensuing action. The plot-holes that enter the surface around the climax derail some of the momentum, such as the fact the ship is left in the body at the end (Isaac Asimov fixed this in his novelization of the movie, which managed to be released months before the film). The saboteur revealed at the end is a bit strange, in that there really isn't too much motivation given for it besides "working for the other side". However, the film is entertaining enough that this can be somewhat forgiven. If the film wasn't as interesting, it wouldn't be easy to forgive.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: The Oscar.

Review #549: The Oscar.

Cast
Stephen Boyd (Frankie Fane), Elke Sommer (Kay Bergdahl), Milton Berle (Alfred Kapstetter), Eleanor Parker (Sophie Cantaro), Joseph Cotten (Kenneth H. Regan), Jill St. John (Laurel Scott), Tony Bennett (Kelly), Edie Adams (Trina Yale), and Ernest Borgnine (Barney Yale) Directed by Russell Rouse.

Review
In honor of the 86th Academy Awards this Sunday, I decided to review a movie with many stars (some of which who won Oscars before this movie), many cameos...and a big ego. The movie is billed as a drama, when it really is an unintentional comedy that goes so over the top in trying to be a drama, that it becomes laughable. The main problem of the movie is the unlikable characters. Aside from the main character, there are no characters to root for, none to actually feel for nor care about, and while it could be argued that there are films with unlikable characters that are actually good, this is not one of them. This is a movie that decays from beginning to end, a movie that tries to disguise its faults with cameos, basically trying to plug a hole with a band-aid. Tony Bennett is bad (one might say inept is a better term, but let's be fair, this was his film debut and consequently his only dramatic role), but with the lines (Example: "I was running out of numbers! He used 'em like Kleenex! Once, and threw 'em away!") he has to say, I can't blame him. The movie is bloated in length, self-indulgent in style, and an overall mess that almost is so bad, it's good, until it goes back into so bad, it's bad. I'd stick to the "The Nobel" by SCTV instead. Whatever you may think of the Oscars, this is a definite skip it.

Overall, I give it 3 out of 10 stars.